Hamilton dominates Chinese weekend from start to finish

This time there was no break of nerve or gearbox problem or sticking in gravel. This time Hamilton cruises past Shanghai circuit from start to finish and goes to Brazil with a 7 points lead. Hamilton was fastest in all sessions at China except 1. Raikkonen, who was second till last 8 laps paved way, for Massa to finish ahead of him. Raikkonen was third.

The race was a borefest with little overtaking initially by Webber and nice little fight between Alonso and Kovaleinen (After so many exciting races a boring race was due!). Kubica finished sixth after qualifying only at 12th position and is now out of WDC picture. Alonso felt like winning after finishing fourth. The race clearly showed the ability of the Mclaren to get the desired tyre temperatures in a single lap and Hamilton outpaced everyone of the grid by 0.3 secs a lap (a phenomenon gap!)

The last laps were amid a bit of controversy among the fans as Raikkonen was paving way for Massa to let him pass (It wasn’t as subtle as interlagos last year when Raikkonen got ahead of Massa). But, what Ferrari did today was no different to how Lewis Hamilton passed Heikki Kovalainen at Hockenheim, or how Robert Kubica passed Nick Heidfeld at Montreal. Raikkonen was sacrificing for his team and returning the favour Massa did for him at Interlagos last year.

Another heartbreak for Adrian Sutil of Force India with his 11th retirement of the season.

With Hamilton having the same gap going into final round as last year many Ferrari fans will be expecting of another miracle. But lightening doesn’t strike twice!! The Hamilton is definitely more mature than last year and will be taking it easy to win WDC. He just needs a fifth place finish at Interlagos when Massa wins the race to take home WDC. It will be after ’99 that a McLaren driver will be taking the trophy home. But, lets not get carried away!